IT för att bygga nätverk
Att komplettera personliga relationer med IT
Globalization has lead to evolvement of teamwork between companies and their customers. One reason for this change is the growth of the IT community and the propagation of the Internet. This in turn has lead to faster communication within business networks and also a higher degree of integration between companies.The purpose of this thesis is to describe IT can be used to develop and support networks formed around IT corporations. IT also aim at describing what impact usage of IT within personal networks has on usage of IT within business networks. The thesis is limited to IT-companies using IT artifacts, not only for communication within its organization, but also communicating with its customers and other IT-companies. The companies in this thesis are geographically situated in the same county.A qualitative approach has been used based on our purpose to describe what is behind the choice to use IT artifacts in business networks. In the frame of reference we discuss subject such as the concept of network, hierarchies and companies boundaries, relations, communication and trust and security issues using IT. The empirical part consists of interviews with six respondents from six different IT companies. The companies represent a selection with both flat and hierarchic organizations. They operate on different markets and have different customers. Furthermore, they differ in boundaries, hierarchy and grade of integration with customers and suppliers.The analysis show that all companies participate in one or more business networks. All but one respondent participate in one or more personal networks. All respondents stress the fact that the face-to-face meeting is till important and it can not be fully replaced by IT. IT is used as a complement in the business networks to easily stay in contact with other participants. However, all respondents are of the opinion that networks only based on IT is not possible based on the fact that deeper trust can not evolve without face-to-face meetings.We conclude that IT is an effective tool complementing personal relations through the possibilities of information sharing without having to meet face-to-face. Nevertheless, the face-to-face meeting is yet important.